Thursday, March 13, 2008

Sea Tiger Leader Soosei's 2nd In-Command (2IC) Mangalesh has died in a Security Forces attack on the 8th. Mangalesh's transfer to Mannar was subsequent to a fallout with his Commander Soosei around 7 months ago. He was in charge of the Sea Tigers now deployed on land in defensive maneuvers in Adampan.

DefenceWire has been investigating the exact cause of his death without much luck. On 8th February there were 9 separate attacks by the Security Forces. One was on an LTTE hideout using MI-24/35 Helicopter Gunships.

Several successful artillery attacks were also launched on that date. The Special Forces carried out some attacks in the Deep Battle Space in Mannar. We understand that Mangalesh may have met his end in one of the above attacks.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Air Force carried out three separate attacks on LTTE locations in Mannar last morning. The targets were LTTE assets, which included a ration store and kitchen complex, a mobile operating theater and hospital and a base-camp shelter. Exact damage caused to these assets situated in the Mannar hot zone in yet unclear.

We have raised this issue, not using heavy battleships like MI24-35 s in their true potential. Finally I think the usage of these super power heli's paid off. I think its better to use these heli's before ground troops moving in rather than firing barrages of Rockets and Artillery. B cz now the enemy knows that these things r coming before any invasion for sure. So they know when to hide n how to hide from MBR barrage. I think the cost we are spending worthless comparing to the enemy losses by them. It doesn’t mean that v don’t have to use Arti n MBRL. But minimize it and use more super Air power that we have.

Some of the things that have happened to the LTTE leadership in the past year may be due to an internal feud among the LTTE leaders than to real time air or ground intelligence from SLDF. It is possible that there is some kind of internal feud going on between the Pottu Amman group and the Soosei group. The other possibility is that these actions are directed by VP himself to get rid of potential opponents. Lets face it, the cultural tradition of governance in the sub-continent favors family units, e.g. the Bandaranayakas, Bhuttos, Gandhis, Rajapaksas, etc and the LTTE is no different in this respect. It may be that VP is grooming one of his kids to replace him, and this may be his way of getting rid of the competition.

This is the sequence of events, as we know:

2007 (?)Sea Tiger Leader Soosei is seriously injured by an explosion injured while test-driving a newly purchased Gun Boat at high speed. He had claimed that he lost control of the boat. The explosion kills his son and another cadre. Tamil pro-LTTE websites were quick to give wide publicity to Soosei’s recovery.

November 2 2007S. P. Thamilselvan, the political wing leader of the LTTE and its de-facto number two, is killed in a SLAF air strike at Thiruvaiaru, a location three kilometres South of Kilinochchi around 6am on ‘very reliable information’, identifying the location as a meeting place of LTTE leaders. Five other leaders ‘Lt. Col.’ Anpumani alias Alex, ‘Major’ Mihuthan, ‘Major’ Nethagy, ‘Lieutenant’ Adchgivel and ‘Lieutenant’ Vahakai Kumaran are also killed in the air strike.

Nov 26 or 27Prabhakaran’s bunker is bombed by SLAF planes and he is believed to have been injured.

January 5 2008Chief of the "Liberation Tigers Military Intelligence", self-styled Col. Charles a.k.a. Shanmuganathan Ravishankar, is killed in a claymore attack. Charles was deputy to Pottu Amman, the chief of the LTTE’s intelligence wing.